Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Some Scary News

Wow, you really have been on quite a roller coaster. I'm sorry the cancer sucker punched you like this, but it's good that you will overcome it.

Take care,
Lynn

Sorry to hear about all the bumps in the road, but hopefully it will all go smoothly in the long term. It's great that your doctor is being overly cautious with this, instead of too lax. I hope things go easier from here on out and that you soon put this all behind you.

Power through! Follow Donald Trump's lead and grab cancer by the ...no, I won't go there. I'm glad you feel safe to express your feelings and share your struggle with us, knowing we're all here to give you all the emotional support we can.

I'm sorry to hear about the second round of treatments but they're on the run. Kick them while they're down.

We'll keep praying.

I hope things continue to go well. Don't worry about the hair, it'll grow back - and the first bald alien that comes to mind in Star Trek is Persis Khambatta in the 1979 movie, who wasn't exactly unattractive...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persis_Khambatta#/media/File:Persis_Khambatta_we_Ilia.jpg

This has been a ride with a number of bumps and short starts, but having a doctor who aggressively treats cancer is a plus! I pray life settles down to normal very soon.

By the way Persis Khambatta was also the head of the Congress of Nations on the Lois and Clark pilot.

Dear Nan:

I've been away from the boards for awhile and am sorry to hear of your illness. I hope that you are doing better as of the New Year and that this year will be better than the last.

My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Sincerely, Iolanthe

Adventures in Chemo
by Nan Smith

Well, at long last the chemo is over. January 3 was my last treatment, and now it is a matter of waiting several weeks until all the chemicals work their way out of my system.

This includes the steroids they gave me to avoid allergic reactions to the actual chemo. I've gained 20 pounds because of them, and now I have to lose the weight. <sigh> I also have the traditional moon face of people on steroids, however it never got too bad, and is starting to go away.

That part has been a fun ride, because the steroids also gave me a chemically induced case of diabetes. So, naturally they had to give me stuff to keep my blood sugar down. More pills. For a while there, I could swear I rattled when I walked. Fortunately the number is now decreasing, to my vast relief.

All the chemical poisons have, of course, disrupted my body's natural flora, so I'm having trouble with that, and they have to figure out how to get that all re-balanced. One of the problems it has caused is repeated UTIs. The last one (resistant e-coli courtesy of all the infections I have had because of the chemo) was going on when I had my last chemo treatment, which had to be given on schedule in spite of the infection.

Since it knocked my immune system down, the infection went crazy and I wound up in the hospital on IV antibiotics for a week. That was an adventure all its own. (You remember the definition of adventure, don't you? "Somebody else having a hell of a hard time a thousand miles away.")

While I was there they did a CT scan to see if the kidney stones, which I manufacture in abundance, had tried to move and might be causing part of the problem. They hadn't, but they spotted something on my liver, 5.5 cm long, that shouldn't be there. Because of my history of breast cancer, the hospitalist jumped to the conclusion that it was liver cancer, that the breast cancer had metastasized and that I had only a few weeks to live and should be put in hospice. Oy!

Anyway, I called Dr. Ehsan, my oncologist, in a panic, and he got involved. He got hold of the scan and the report and called the guy and told him I did not have liver cancer, that I had just finished a course of chemotherapy, and that they had better do another CT scan, this time with contrasting media instead of without, to see what this mystery thing really was.

Eventually, the hospitalist agreed to do it, even though he wasn't convinced, and I begged the people in charge to rush it through. They did, too. They got the scan in just under the wire that night, and eventually it got read.

As Dr Ehsan said, it wasn't cancer. It was a hemangioma on my liver. Big difference. Lots of people have hemangiomas. You're born with them, and they can show up anywhere. In case you don't know the term, if you see someone with a big red birthmark on his face or other part of his body, that is a hemangioma. Mine just happened to pick my liver for a good place to live.

They can be dangerous, of course. They are a collection of blood vessels that have grown abnormally, and if someone with a large one manages to fall or otherwise damage the thing, they can literally bleed out, and quickly. It happened to a little boy I used to know, who had one on his face. But it is a lot different from a cancer, and mine has apparently been there all my life with no harm. My doctor, however, recommended that I do something about this one, because if I ever develop another breast cancer (God forbid) any adventurous cancer cell that tries to metastasize would find that a good home because of the abundant blood supply. Getting rid of it involves a single injection that chemically cauterizes it and it's gone. I agreed, and that's going to be done in a couple of months. A minor problem, especially considering what the hospitalist had in mind. Yeesh!

Anyway, that is the saga of my recent adventures in chemo. We're counting the weeks until I am free of the chemicals, and I have half a dozen more specialists to see in the next couple of months to get my system operating as it should again, especially to deal with these confounded UTIs. Guess what. It's been a week and I have another one, but at least my immune system is coming back, and it won't mean getting stuck in the hospital again.

One other good thing came out of this, too. My parents always told me that they believed I was allergic to penicillin because of something that happened when I was about 2 years old. Penicillin, as most know, was discovered during WW2, and so it was still pretty new at the time. I told Dr. Ehsan about the incident and he said that in his opinion, I was not allergic to penicillin.

So, when I went into the emergency room, they gave me penicillin initially to deal with the infection, since I was going septic.

Guess what. Dr. Ehsan was right. I am not allergic to penicillin, which gives me a whole new arsenal of antibiotics that they can use on these dratted infections until they can put my body chemistry back together again. That was one small bright spot in all the rest of the drama. But the whole thing was enough to make me want to go back on the tranquilizers they gave me in the beginning when they found the cancer. I got off those as soon as I could, however, and in spite of temptation, with this last little event, I don't want anything to do with them.

Oh yes, one other joy to deal with. Apparently I am developing non-alcoholic fatty liver, and to get rid of it I have to lose about 20 pounds and avoid sugar and starches. <Sigh> No more chocolate in the near future, along with a lot of other things I love.

But I have to lose the weight anyway, since it was the steroids and chemo that made me gain it, so maybe the day will come when I can go back to eating things like that again, albeit in smaller amounts.

Dr. Ehsan said that chemo is not a sprint but a marathon, and that this is actually the harder part of the whole process. I believe him.

Anyway, I survived the cancer and the chemo. I'm on the home stretch, even if it's no rose garden. I'll tough it out, I guess.

I'll drop a note again in a few weeks to let you know how things are going.

Nan

Hi Nan!

Thanks for sharing. This sounds...harrowing. So glad there's a nice, friendly light at the end of that dark tunnel, though. And it's not coming closer under its own power, too!

Michael

I'm so glad that you checked in, Nan ...

And while I hate to hear all of what you've been through, I'm so happy for you in finding out that you are through the gauntlet of chemo. Hoping, praying, and thinking positively that things start to realign in your body, your immune system goes into high gear, and you start feeling like your old self again soon.

You are doing great!!!

Please check back in a bit with an update on how you are feeling--I'll be looking for it
Laura

Nan,

So glad you checked in, just yesterday I was wondering what was happening and of course (my wife will tell you I am a glass half empty kind of guy) began thinking the worst. I am extremely glad that the worst appears to be behind you. Hopefully you will get on a faster recovery track now that your immune system is coming back. It would be extremely difficult to fight any of the common stuff we get exposed to without that functioning properly.

As Laura says keep checking in and keep us up to date on your progress. That way I won't worry as much.

Mike

Glad to hear an update. Hopefully your adventures now will be a little less adventurous, for lack of a better word. (And a more functioning brain than I have at the moment). Sounds like you've got a good set of doctors on your side. Hopefully this year will be smoother than the last.
Sarah

Glad to hear that things are improving after the bad.

Sorry it's being such a drag, but it sounds like things are improving. Hope things continue to improve.

I am so glad you are able to let us know how everything is going. Hope the very worst is over.

Hi Nan,

Thanks for sharing your trials with us; I am sorry you have been having such a rough time, but am happy to hear how much progress has been made.

Take care,
Lynn

Well, well, I now have some good news and bad news. I spoke too soon. I'm going to have to go back into the hospital to be put on IV antibiotics for a week to kill this blasted infection, since there are no oral antibiotics that I can take to kill it. The only one is Bactrim, which is a sulfa drug, and I am definitely allergic to sulfa drugs, as the last time I took one (Septra) I broke out in a lovely little red rash that itched like fury and lasted for a week.

However, the good news is, my urologist thinks he has pinpointed the source of the infections. I have a big kidney stone in the left kidney which is probably harboring the bacteria, so the antibiotics can't reach them. The solution to that is shockwave therapy, otherwise known as lithotripsy. So first they have to kill the infection again, and then smash the stone.

I sure hope he's right on this one. This is getting awfully old.

Hate to hear this latest development, but it is good that they seem to know what is going on.

I'm allergic to sulfa drugs, too. Not fun.

Take care--and shoot us a message with the good news that you are back home .
Laura

Sorry to hear the latest development. But I'm glad that, overall, you are getting closer to the finish line. My prayers are with you for a speedy recovery from the infections.

People are probably getting tired of hearing from me, but here goes:

Yesterday,I had my 6 month mammogram after the end of chemo. The report is good -- no sign of the tumor.

I'm still dealing with UTIs. The kidney stone was harboring tons of bacteria, but after they got rid of it, I'm still getting the infections. They have now decided the problem is my immune system itself.

I was taking Femara, an estrogen suppressant, to lower the chances of recurrence of the tumor, but it has a history of depressing the immune system somewhat and causing repeated UTIs. A better alternative is Tamoxifen, which has a lower rate of such side effects, so I was switched to it two weeks ago. Now we have to wait to see if things improve. In the meantime, my doctor is running tests on my immune system, and if that is the problem, there is an injection he can give me (weekly) that boosts the immune system. However, first they have to determine that it is the problem, which will take 4 tests, 3 months apart. I've had one, so nine months from now we'll have the results <sigh>.

However, since I have to stay on Tamoxifen for the next 10 years, I guess I have the time. It's a nuisance, but I can now say I've lived through worse.